Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that some of us look back with nostalgia to the days when the occupant of the Woolsack was the present Lord Chancellor's predecessor?
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I really wonder whether the noble Lord is aware of the extent to which he has attracted to himself this morning the wholehearted sympathy of the House at the appalling ordeal that he has had to go through in not giving a single answer to a question and really fluffing what he has said beyond the limits of comprehension.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords—
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Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, in his Answer to my noble friend Lord Jenkin, the noble Lord understandably did not refer to the simple fact that Mrs Beckett at Defra was apparently—according to this document—the centrepiece of opposition to a new nuclear build. I quite understand that the noble Lord was not too keen to deal with that, but I wonder if he could get round to doing so now. Are we right in...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, the confidence that the Bill has imposed in the Secretary of State, and which the Minister has repeated today, has convinced me by a pretty narrow margin that I had better support my noble friend's amendment after all, despite the fact that it gives unnecessary encouragement to a Secretary of State to tamper in matters of which he knows very little.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I shall start with an apology for not having taken any part in Committee. My reason is that I simply cannot bear the Moses Room. If I had anything to do with managing government business, the first thing I would do is to hold a pistol to the usual channels and say, "You have got to stop taking this Bill, that Bill and the next one to the Moses Room because it stifles all debate". It...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I think I accept what my noble friend is getting at. But what I am saying is that I do not take the optimistic view that Secretaries of State are particularly knowledgeable about railways or anything else. A great many Secretaries of State are innocent and have very little experience of running anything. I accept that the Bill gives the Minister far greater powers than it should....
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I shall not go into that at length. My simple point is that although I accept that the Bill does thoroughly wrong things, it is nevertheless wrong to underline them by telling the Secretary of State what to do. It will only encourage him to give instructions to other people. I think that that would be fatally stupid. I should find it very difficult to support my noble friend,...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: asked Her Majesty's Government: For how long they propose to continue to keep the option for nuclear generation open and what is the annual cost to public funds of doing so.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I shall have to examine that lengthy Answer with care, just to see whether there was anything new in it—but I have the impression that we have heard most of it before. I do not suppose that the noble Lord would agree with me, but am I right in thinking that perhaps the two right honourable ladies with whom he is acquainted, who are responsible for electricity supply, have become...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I think that I shall await the noble and learned Lord's answer to this debate with considerable interest. I shall be particularly interested to hear how he reacts to the speech that was made just now by the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy. It was a superb speech. It was a sincere speech. It had nothing to do with parties. I say in passing that I have frequently wondered since I have...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, is the Minister aware that there used to be a great amount of dud science washing about the corridors of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food? That seems to have been inherited by his present department. Will he be sensible and try to teach his department that when the noble Countess comes forward on this subject, she is much more often right than are any government advisers?
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I do not suppose that the noble Baroness will agree, but her original Answer to my noble friend seemed optimistic and opaque in the extreme.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, there are not many of my noble friends on the Front Bench—most of them are absent, unless I have misunderstood. My noble friend Lord Kingsland declared that this party is committed to getting the Bill through by Tuesday. At most I am an extremely reluctant passenger on the vehicle that my noble friend is driving for the moment. I am not greatly influenced, therefore, by his plea...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, was not the Government Chief Whip slightly optimistic when he indicated just now that a postponement of a quarter of an hour would achieve as a result absolute clarity? It seems to me very unlikely that absolute clarity is ever going to be found in the pages of the Bill. I agree entirely with what has been said about the way in which Parliament is being treated. The House of Commons...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: I am really getting worried. The Government Chief Whip got to his feet at about half past eleven and said one of the most optimistic things that I have ever heard: that if the House were adjourned for a quarter of an hour we would achieve absolute clarity. The prospect of absolute clarity has since then receded considerably. I do not want to make a long speech but I wish to refer to what has...
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: Is the noble and learned Lord really suggesting that we would have no difficulty in discussing 29 government amendments, all of which are starred? I do not agree; we have absolute difficulty. That is why I have formally moved that this House do now resume.